[Note: These cell biologists specialize in the study of adaptive stress response and diseases involving impaired defenses against cellular stress – as well as how plant-based compounds, evolved to protect against environmental stresses, can benefit animals that ingest them by activating their own cellular stress response. Unfortunately the full text of this article is fee based.]

Having a valid paradigm to address the pathological impacts of viral infections could lead to effective new therapies for diseases that have previously been unresponsive to intervention.

Host response to viral infections can also lead to autoimmune diseases like type 1 diabetes.

In the case of Newcastle disease virus, the effects of viral infection on heat shock proteins may be leveraged as a therapy for cancer. [Heat shock proteins (called molecular chaperones because they aid in movement of proteins among the compartments of a cell), are expressed at high levels when the cell is exposed to a sudden stress. Then their job is to correct other proteins in the cell that can't maintain their proper structure under stress and if not corrected can damage or kill the cell.]

Finally, the search for a specific virus being responsible for a condition like chronic fatigue syndrome may not be worthwhile if the disease is simply a nonspecific response to viral infection.